Jeff Mizanskey walked out of the Jefferson City Correctional Center on 1 September 2015, free for the first time in more than two decades, wearing white tennis shoes and a shirt reading “I’m Jeff & I’m free”.[1] The 62-year-old had served about 21 years of a life-without-parole sentence imposed in 1996 after three nonviolent marijuana convictions, and greeted his infant great-granddaughter outside the gates before leaving for steak and eggs with his family.[1][2] Police said his final offense was conspiring to sell six pounds of marijuana to a dealer connected with Mexican cartels, and with earlier convictions from 1984 and 1991, Missouri’s repeat-offender law left him no parole option.[1] His earlier cases included selling a small amount to a relative, possessing under three ounces at home, and driving a friend to buy from an undercover officer, with no guns and no sales to children.[2]
He was Missouri’s only prisoner serving life without parole for a nonviolent marijuana offense when Governor Jay Nixon commuted his sentence in May 2015, and the parole board approved his release that August.[1][3] His lawyer Dan Viets credited the ACLU and Show-Me Cannabis campaigners and shifting public opinion, and the legislature later repealed the prior-and-persistent-offender law that had mandated his sentence.[1][2] Mizanskey said he would look for work and advocate for legalization, calling his years inside “hell”.[1]